Small farmers in Shezi Island know how to use the edible plants around their environment to make the delicious popular snack "Caozaiguo". Once you try, you can smell the grassy fragrance and taste the rich fillings. You will satisfy with each bite. Let us learn from Mrs. Hong-Lin Bao-Jiao to make the special dim sum!
Caozaiguo
Caozaiguo (Minnan dialect: tsháu-á-kué), also known as green grass guo, grass guo, is a traditional food that is popular in southern Fujian and other places. It is named for edible grass. In the early years, it was the food for Purdue and grave-sweeping worship in Zhongyuan. Now it is mostly a snack when bored. Ingredients: The shape is about the size of a flat palm, the inside is shredded with radish and chopped for filling, the taste is salty, the green appearance, with banana leaves, moon peach leaves, etc. as pads. The southern Fujian region mainly has only salty fillings. Taiwan is affected by Hakkazhuang. It is also popular for sweet fillings, which are eaten with sesame and peanut fillings. There are different names due to the difference in the materials used. The more common is the rat squirrel made from rat sedge (Minnan: tshí-khak-kué). The green glutinous rice is first rounded and then flattened to about the size of a palm. It is stuffed with dried radish, shrimp, shallots, shiitake mushrooms, and minced meat. The sesame, red beans, and peanut fillings are also popular in Canton. Leaves etc. are pads.
Gnaphalium luteoalbum affine 
Gnaphalium purpureum L.
Gnaphalium luteoalbum affine: also known as Qingming grass, horn grass and so on. Be careful when collecting horned grass, don't spray it down, and you don't know how to pull it back. Some people use seeds for planting, but the soil is different from the original site and may not grow well. It is better to grow in summer.
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Grind the old round glutinous rice into flour for 4 hours |
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Then use hands to wash the lumpy rice noodles |
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Boil the horns (paste) with horn grass juice and sugar beforehand. Add the horns. Do not add too much at one time. Too much will be too soft. |
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Continue to knead the dough vigorously until uniformly mixed |
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Take a dough of appropriate size, first knead it into a ball, squeeze it flat with your palm, and put the flat dough on your palm. Be careful not to make the dough too thin, otherwise it will easily break after cooking. |
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Put the filling in the center of the dough, then reseal the dough and wrap it into a ball |
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Dip some salad oil in your hand and pat on the surface of the small dough. |
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Put a small red dot on the top to mark it, and then take a flat |
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First spread the salad oil evenly in the groove of the wooden mold |
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Place the small dough in a wooden mold and press it by hand |
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In the past, people used banana leaves or moon peach leaves underneath. Now they are more lazy and use baking paper instead of washing the leaves. |
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Turn the wooden mold upside down with one hand, and catch it with the palm of one hand carefully, then slowly take it down |
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Last one in the steamer |
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During the cooking process, do not close the lid of the steamer tightly, so as to avoid too much moisture and the shape of the dough will be out of shape. |
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The control of the fire should not be too large, between the fire and the medium fire |
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Steam the steamer to cool it in front of the electric fan. The dough will cool quickly when it is cooled. |
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The fragrant and Q Caozaiguo are out! |
Reference source：
Hong-Lin Bao-Jiao. Personal interview. Jan 25, 2018.
Fuan Elementary School Special Course "Shezi Island is My Home:Cuojiaoguo"(Designed by Teacher Xu Minhua)
Gnaphalium luteoalbum affine & Gnaphalium purpureum L.
Wikipedia. [Online] https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/Wikipedia:%E9%A6%96%E9%A1%B5
- Q1: Is it different or the same as before? A: The afternoon tea and snacks of the former residents of Shezi Island were Caoziyan, but few people are willing to make Caoziyan. People living in the countryside now want to live in the city because science and technology are both developed and convenient. And the salary is high, so everyone thinks of urban life. Q2: Was it good or bad before? A: In the past, it was good to make the stuffed herbs, and the flavors of the fillings were diversified. In the past, it was because the salt in the soil became higher after Typhoon Guleli, which caused the residents of Shezi Island to stop growing vegetables, so As a result, the material of Cao Ziyu was not available. The ingredients for making grasshoppers are: Mosquito grass, also known as Qingming grass, horn grass, etc., so he can only eat it in Qingming Festival. !! (YI-XUAN)
- In the past, people in Shezi Island would make old-fashioned food, such as grass tart or some food, but now people are constantly creating new food, so most people no longer make grass. Alas. I think the advantage of making grasshoppers in the past is to make the best use of it. You can use the plants grown near your home to make food. It is really old wisdom. Now, because there are too many food choices, I don't necessarily eat the grasshoppers. In this way, there will be a less festive atmosphere. Of course, when the seawater came into Shezi Island, the soil of the entire Shezi Island became salty, so there were fewer plants, and there were fewer materials to make, so it is not convenient to obtain the materials for grasshoppers. (PO-XUAN)
- People in Shezi Island used to eat some healthier foods on their birthdays, but now people eat some less healthy things. People used to eat grassy rice dumplings, oil rice, sweet potato porridge, etc. Now everyone eats fried food, junk food and other foods. People are not good now, because they eat some junk food and are not nutritious. If you can change junk food to healthy food, then people will become very healthy and nutritious! So in the future, always eat healthy food and eat less junk food! (YU-YAN)
